PICK OF THE WEEK

CD-ROMs "The Great British Pub...

January 23, 2000|By Toni Stroud/Tribune Staff Writer.

PICK OF THE WEEK

CD-ROMs

"The Great British Pub Guide"

(Wandering Albatross, $29.95)

They probably wrote this clever promotional hook while sitting near the fireplace in the 17th Century pub George, at 77 Borough High in London: "How else could you visit 20 pubs during your lunch hour and not get fired?" I hate it when the people who create a product beat me to the punch line. But this CD-ROM is so easy to use and so much fun, I can't hold a grudge. From the menu page, you can search for pubs by name, location or specific criteria. That's how I found out about the George, by filling in blanks and clicking boxes for a London pub with a fireplace, exposed beams, literary or historic merit, and that served real ale. Turns out the George survived the London Blitz when few other surrounding buildings did. Dickens mentioned the place in the "Pickwick Papers," and the staff seems to enjoy working there. It's observations like these, from Chicago-based creators Thomas Adler and Malcolm Armstrong, that make "The Great British Pub Guide" educational and entertaining. I found myself performing the virtual equivalent of ordering another round, by clicking on various maps -- for London, England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland -- that led to pub lists by neighborhood or city. At least a couple of pubs in London City were built by Sir Christopher Wren, the better to encourage workers who were erecting St. Paul's Cathedral and rebuilding St. Bride's Church. Oliver St. John Gogarty's Pub in Dublin apparently kept James Joyce going in his day, and keeps others going now with its Dublin Musical Pub Crawl. In Wales, the Hawk & Buckle Inn near the ruins of Denbigh Castle has good food and lodging with countryside views. Click some more to get the history of ale, dating back to the Phoenicians, and of pubs, dating back to the Romans. If a real, live visit to the pubs listed here is as enriching as the virtual ones in "The Great British Pub Guide," it's easy to see why pubs are an integral part of British Isles culture -- and how Adler and Armstrong could spend two years bending their elbows in research. Purchase on-line at www.amazon.com or at www.wanderingalbatross.com; and in Chicago at The Savvy Traveler and The Joy of Ireland.

Myth-busters

"Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong"

(The New Press, $26.95)

After James W. Loewen gets through with you, you may never again desire to visit Almo, Idaho; South Pass City, Wyo.; Alcalde, N.M; or Union, W.Va.; those places have lied shamelessly about their past, he says. Of course, the fact that you never heard of those places and had no desire to see them in the first place is beside the point. And the point that Loewen so fervently makes in this hardcover is that much of this country's history, whether it's something as prominent as Abe Lincoln's log cabin or as obscure as a knife duel in Pagosa Springs, Colo., is desperately one-sided in favor of straight white males, when it isn't wrong altogether. Loewen is passionate as he argues, for example, that: tour guides in Lancaster, Pa., hide the fact that President James Buchanan was gay; the state of Indiana has only one historical marker commemorating a white woman, remembered for undergoing experimental surgery in 1809 to remove an ovary; Florida has neglected to erect a historical marker explaining that the former black township of Rosewood was wiped out in 1923 by the Ku Klux Klan. Oh yes, and George Washington did not pray at Valley Forge. But, as Loewen himself states on page 90: "Proving that an event did not occur can be difficult." It's a course the author pursues nonetheless, hoping to expand America's collective memory and broaden the purpose of those who travel to historic sites.